E W Christmas was born in South Australia January 1863 at Yankalilla, the son of John James Christmas and Martha Leak. (Source: South Australian births, Index of registrations, 1842 to 1906. Adelaide, The South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc, 1997). Studied art in Adelaide and Sydney. Resident in Wellington by 1905, later in Auckland, and in Christchurch. He exhibited with the Wellington-based New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts between 1905 and 1907. He also exhibited New Zealand and Australian landscapes at the DIC, Wellington, November 1896 (reported in New Zealand Mail, 12 Nov 1896, p. 39). He also visited the Pacific islands, Patagonia (evidence from an undated oil titled Bullock team, Patagonia, offered at Christie's Melbourne, 7 December 2003) and Wales. The catalogue of an exhibition of his work held in Napier in 1908 suggests that he is intending to leave New Zealand. He was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1909. He exhibited four works at the Royal Academy, London, 1910 and 1911. The works exhibited in 1910 were item 611 'Maori flax-gatherers' and item 758 'Sunset on the great Tasman Glacier, New Zealand'. He exhibited an oil of Mt Cook at the Royal British Academy, 1910. (Information from a Cordy's catalogue, 22 June 2010, lot 795). Christmas also exhibited New Zealand landscapes in Sydney in 1911. Reports in the New Zealand Free Lance, 11 March 1911, p. 5, and 14 December 1912, p. 4 report his success in London. Died Honolulu, July 1918. See McCulloch, A. Encyclopaedia of Australian artists, for further details, including an incorrect birth date of ca 1850. e Ernest.